Jack Vowles
Biographic Data
| ID | 925398 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jack Vowles |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jack |
| FAMILY NAME | Vowles |
| SIGNATURE | VOWLES J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Waikato |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1954-7466 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 404 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 69 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Migrants and voting behaviour: The case of ethnic Chinese in New Zealand
Fairness, tika and political science in Aotearoa New Zealand: "Some "inconvenient evidence
This article is a rejoinder to Annie Te One and Maria Bargh's article, published in the previous edition of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, exploring whether the political science discipline in Aotearoa New Zealand is keeping pace with change with respect to Māori politics content in university political science programs, the number of Māori employed in the political science profession and the content of New Zealand's Political Sc…
Does Increasing Ethnic Diversity Reduce Electoral Turnout? The Case of New Zealand 1957–2020
A diversifying population may affect electoral turnout when there is an increasing proportion of minorities with weaker voting habits than those of the majority. New Zealand provides an example to test this possibility, by way of growth in the indigenous Māori population and a high level of recent immigration. A large sample dataset provides better estimates of group turnouts than hitherto available. The authors estimate how much ethnic diversifi…
Preferences for single-party versus multi-party governments
The literature on comparative political institutions highlights a tradeoff between majoritarian/plurality and proportional/consensus models of democracy. The former arrangement is said to enhance having governing parties held accountable. The latter is said to promote representation of a range of views, with a coalition of multiple parties governing. A tradeoff may be that the representativeness of multi-party coalitions can make it difficult for…
Authoritarianism and Mass Political Preferences in Times of Covid-19: The 2020 New Zealand General Election
The adoption of restrictive policies to contain the spread of COVID-19 has led many to fear the authoritarian implications of excessive government powers over compliant publics. One of the strongest government responses took place in New Zealand, followed only a few months later by the landslide election victory of the Labour Party, the dominant party in the pre-election coalition. This article tests a claim that authoritarian dispositions were m…
Representation, identity and indigeneity: Changes in Māori roll choice in Aotearoa‐New Zealand
In New Zealand, also known by its Indigenous Māori name Aotearoa, voters of Māori descent have the choice between the Māori roll and the General roll. The boundaries of the seven dedicated Māori electoral districts are superimposed over those of the 65 General districts. Every five years, after the census, persons who have reported Māori descent have the option to change between electoral rolls. Choice of the Māori roll indicates a strong sense o…
Tales of Two Referendums: Comparing Debate Quality between the UK and New Zealand Voting System Referendums of 2011
Two voting system referendums in the same year in two countries with institutional and cultural similarities provide an excellent opportunity for comparison, particularly given the significant differences in how those referendums were regulated and conducted. In New Zealand, a well-funded and balanced official information campaign led the debate; in Britain, the debate was dominated by campaign organisations. Based on content analysis of newspape…
Ballot structure, district magnitude and descriptive representation: The case of New Zealand local council elections
It is sometimes claimed that the use of preferential voting facilitates more effective representation of under-represented groups than that generated by the first-past-the-post (FPP) system, particularly in combination with higher district magnitude. This claim is tested using unique observational data. Local government elections in New Zealand are conducted using either the single transferable vote (STV) or first-past-the-post, providing the opp…
Democracy Under Siege?: Parties, Voters, and Elections After the Great Recession
For the worlds democracies, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008–9 was catalyst for the most precipitous economic downturn in eight decades. This book examines how the GFC and ensuing Great Recession affected the workings of mass politics in the established democracies. The initial wave of research on the crisis concluded it did little to change the established relationships between voters, parties, and elections. Yet, nearly a decade since the in…
Democracy under Siege: Parties, Voters, and Elections after the Great Recession
Electoral Systems in Context: New Zealand
This chapter examines the consolidation of New Zealand’s mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system since the first MMP election in 1996. It has three sections: the first examines whether the change to MMP has achieved the goals of electoral reformers or confirmed the fears of its opponents; the second draws on longer-term historical analysis to assess the fit between the MMP system and the cleavage structure of New Zealand’s electoral poli…
Surprise, surprise: The New Zealand general election of 2017
This article analyses the 2017 general election in New Zealand and draws out some of its implications. The final outcome was a surprise, and its implications momentous. Events strengthened Labour under a new leader and weakened the Green and New Zealand First parties, making it possible for Labour to become a viable coalition formateur . Comparing campaign public polling results, at least some of the polls were ‘wrong’, but all added to the excit…
Electoral Competitiveness and Turnout in British Elections, 1964–2010
Analyzing the British Election Study from 1964 to 2010, we examine the influence of electoral context on turnout, focusing on the closeness of elections in terms of lagged seat and constituency-level winning margins. Using cross-classified multilevel models to account for individual and contextual factors and disentangle life cycle, cohort- and election-specific effects, we find that closeness strongly affects voting behavior, particularly among …
A breath of fresh air
Globalization and Domestic Politics: Parties, Elections, and Public Opinion
This book addresses how a widely acknowledged and pervasive economic and social process, globalization, affects democratic domestic politics among both masses and elites. It inquires into the extent to which, and how, globalization affects the political attitudes and behaviour of ordinary citizens and the policies of political parties. Chapters discuss to what extent globalization affects the salience of left–right politics, the content of party …
Vote Compass in the 2014 New Zealand election: Hearing the voice of New Zealand voters
Vote Compass – an online voter education tool originating in Canada – was used for the first time in New Zealand during the 2014 general election. During its inaugural run, over 330,000 New Zealanders visited the Vote Compass website to answer 30 policy- or issue-based questions. In return, respondents received a report on how close their views were to 10 political parties seeking office. Due to the large sample size, these data provided Televisi…
The 2014 New Zealand general election: Varieties of political communication
Legislative accountability in a mixed-member system
Accountability of representatives to electors is a key indicator of democratic health. In mixed-member systems, the coexistence of two kinds of representation provides the opportunity to test competing claims with minimal confounding factors. There is debate about the relative accountability of constituency and list MPs, and in particular, concerning dual candidacy, where individuals can stand for both constituency and list seats. Analysing New Z…
The UK's electoral reform referendum of May 2011
Campaign claims, partisan cues, and media effects in the 2011 British Electoral System Referendum
Why voters prefer coalitions: Rationality or norms
This article asks if voters might prefer coalitions or single-party governments for ideological or normative reasons. Of course, they might prefer coalition to single-party governments for many reasons, one set clustering around the rational preferences of partisans largely in terms of expectations of electoral success or failure, and the other around the influence of norms or ideology. In terms of ‘rationality’, small-party supporters should wan…
Priming time for Blair? Media priming, Iraq, and leadership evaluations in Britain
Electoral System Change, Generations, Competitiveness and Turnout in New Zealand, 1963–2005
In 1996, New Zealand changed its electoral system from single-member plurality (SMP) to a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system. This article addresses the effects on turnout of electoral system change, generational differences and national and district-level competitiveness. Both theory and cross-sectional empirical evidence indicate that turnout should be higher after the change to MMP. Yet turnout has declined. Most of this turns out to be an…
Making a difference? Public perceptions of coalition, single-party, and minority governments
The 2008 General Election in New Zealand
Strategic voting, party activity, and candidate effects: Testing explanations for split voting in New Zealand's new mixed system
The Politics of Electoral Reform in New Zealand
In a referendum held at the same time as the 1993 general election, a majority of New Zealanders voted to establish a new propor tional electoral system to replace their traditional simple plurality system, to take effect after April 1995. New Zealanders were responding to the destabilizing effects of party system dealignment, increasing dispropor tionality of election outcomes, and a succession of governments which many believed had ignored publ…
Redefining Constituency Representation: The Roles of New Zealand MPs Under MMP
New Zealand's mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system created nationwide party list MPs who had to develop their constituency roles in the context of historically strong links between constituents and their plurality-elected representatives. The article analyses the impact of MMP on the relationship between the two types of MP and voters. Building on theories of legislative behaviour, it proposes hypotheses that are tested against both s…
Offsetting the PR Effect: Party Mobilization and Turnout Decline in New Zealand, 1996-99
The 1999 election produced probably the lowest voting turnout of any twentieth-century New Zealand election. Yet it was the second election after a change to proportional representation from a first-past-the-post system, which comparative research indicates should have had the effect of turnout increase. This puzzle is examined using pooled validated data from the 1996 and 1999 New Zealand Election Studies, with particular attention to the effect…
Party Interests, Public Opinion and Institutional Preferences: Electoral System Change in New Zealand
Explanations of the origins of electoral systems tend to rely heavily on rational choice assumptions: essentially the common sense inference that political parties prefer electoral arrangements that promote their interests. Accounts of electoral system change in New Zealand support either a partisan interest interpretation on the basis of survey evidence from voters, or point to other deeper causes in historical, institutional and cultural phenom…
Making a difference? Public perceptions of coalition, single-party, and minority governments
Electoral Competitiveness and Turnout in British Elections, 1964–2010
Analyzing the British Election Study from 1964 to 2010, we examine the influence of electoral context on turnout, focusing on the closeness of elections in terms of lagged seat and constituency-level winning margins. Using cross-classified multilevel models to account for individual and contextual factors and disentangle life cycle, cohort- and election-specific effects, we find that closeness strongly affects voting behavior, particularly among …
Does globalization affect public perceptions of 'Who in power can make a difference'? Evidence from 40 countries, 1996-2006
Electoral System Change, Generations, Competitiveness and Turnout in New Zealand, 1963–2005
In 1996, New Zealand changed its electoral system from single-member plurality (SMP) to a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system. This article addresses the effects on turnout of electoral system change, generational differences and national and district-level competitiveness. Both theory and cross-sectional empirical evidence indicate that turnout should be higher after the change to MMP. Yet turnout has declined. Most of this turns out to be an…
Campaign claims, partisan cues, and media effects in the 2011 British Electoral System Referendum
The Rise of New Politics and Market Liberalism in Australia and New Zealand
The rise of ‘New Politics’ concerns since the 1970s parallels the rise in popularity of market liberalism. Although often considered to be opposites, both goals have been pursued vigorously and simultaneously by social democratic governments in Australia and New Zealand. This article examines the circumstances of this unlikely marriage and, by applying multivariate analysis to election survey data collected in each country in 1990, examines the i…
Nuclear free New Zealand and rogernomics: The survival of a labour government
New Zealand's fourth Labour government, elected to power in 1984, has become known most generally for two of its policies: a refusal to accept nuclear warships in New Zealand waters, and the vigour and consistency with which it has pursued market orientated economic policies. A post‐election near‐national survey of 1013 respondents is employed to measure the extent to which the two policies may have aided Labour's re‐election in 1987. Contrary to…
Priming time for Blair? Media priming, Iraq, and leadership evaluations in Britain
Political data in 2005
New Zealand
Forecasting and Evaluating the Consequences of Electoral Change in New Zealand
Public policy in Australia and New Zealand: The new global context
Australia and New Zealand have shared in the current wave of interest in globalisation. Indeed, it may well be that some of the dimensions of globalisation are more pressing for nation-states like Australia and New Zealand. Both nations have relatively small economies and neither fits particularly easily into trans-national, regionally based groupings of nation-states that offer one way for smaller economies to adjust to global change. Yet where …
Virtuous Circle or Cul de Sac? Social Capital and Political Participation in New Zealand
Declining turnout in recent elections highlights the decline of political participation in New Zealand. Political participation and othe R forms of non-political civic engagement, such as membership in civic associations, are said to be part of a wider rubric: social capital. According to this theory, associations act as ‘schools of democracy’ that foster values such as civic engagement and trust. New Zealand government usage of social capital in…
Introducing proportional representation: The New Zealand experience
Journal Article Introducing proportional representation: the New Zealand experience Get access J Vowles J Vowles University of Waikato/New Zealand Election Study Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 53, Issue 4, October 2000, Pages 680–696, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/53.4.680 Published: 01 October 2000
Did the Polls Influence the Vote? a Case Study of the 1999 New Zealand General Election
Following the 1999 election in New Zealand, a Bill was introduced into Parliament to prevent the publication of polls during the month prior to a general election. Two parties, New Zealand First and National, feared that polls had adversely influenced their electoral performances. The claim is reviewed, the methodologies used to estimate the effects of polls on the vote discussed, and a test is applied for New Zealand in 1999. The data is from a …
Vote Compass in the 2014 New Zealand election: Hearing the voice of New Zealand voters
Vote Compass – an online voter education tool originating in Canada – was used for the first time in New Zealand during the 2014 general election. During its inaugural run, over 330,000 New Zealanders visited the Vote Compass website to answer 30 policy- or issue-based questions. In return, respondents received a report on how close their views were to 10 political parties seeking office. Due to the large sample size, these data provided Televisi…
Why voters prefer coalitions: Rationality or norms
This article asks if voters might prefer coalitions or single-party governments for ideological or normative reasons. Of course, they might prefer coalition to single-party governments for many reasons, one set clustering around the rational preferences of partisans largely in terms of expectations of electoral success or failure, and the other around the influence of norms or ideology. In terms of ‘rationality’, small-party supporters should wan…
Electoral Systems and Proportional Tenure of Government: Renewing the Debate
Debates between advocates of the two major alternative forms of electoral system often proceed at cross-purposes. In parliamentary systems, governments not only wield executive power, they strongly influence the agenda of the legislature and in some cases dominate it. The core literature on electoral systems focuses almost entirely on the relations between vote shares and legislative seat shares, leaving government formation aside. Yet the main d…
The New Zealand Election Study
Rascals and PR: How Pinto‐Duschinsky stacked the decks
Jack Vowles defends the reputations of fellow political scientists researching the effects of electoral systems
Delegates Compared: A Sociology of The National, Labour, and Social Credit Party Conferences, 1983
‘Parties may represent interests determined through “class situation” or “status situation”, and they may recruit their following respectively from one or the other. But they need to neither purely be “class” nor purely “status” parties. In most cases they are partly class parties, and partly status parties, but sometimes they are neither ...’1
Social Structure and Political Attitudes: A Report of 1984 Election Voting in Three Auckland Marginals
(1987). Social Structure and Political Attitudes: A Report of 1984 Election Voting in Three Auckland Marginals. Political Science: Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 17-31
Playing Games With Electorates: New Zealand’s Political Ecology in 1987
Nuclear free New Zealand and rogernomics: The survival of a labour government
New Zealand's fourth Labour government, elected to power in 1984, has become known most generally for two of its policies: a refusal to accept nuclear warships in New Zealand waters, and the vigour and consistency with which it has pursued market orientated economic policies. A post‐election near‐national survey of 1013 respondents is employed to measure the extent to which the two policies may have aided Labour's re‐election in 1987. Contrary to…
New Zealand
Gender and Electoral Behaviour in New Zealand: Findings from the Present and the Past
New Zealand
The Rise of New Politics and Market Liberalism in Australia and New Zealand
The rise of ‘New Politics’ concerns since the 1970s parallels the rise in popularity of market liberalism. Although often considered to be opposites, both goals have been pursued vigorously and simultaneously by social democratic governments in Australia and New Zealand. This article examines the circumstances of this unlikely marriage and, by applying multivariate analysis to election survey data collected in each country in 1990, examines the i…
New Zealand
The Politics of Electoral Reform in New Zealand
In a referendum held at the same time as the 1993 general election, a majority of New Zealanders voted to establish a new propor tional electoral system to replace their traditional simple plurality system, to take effect after April 1995. New Zealanders were responding to the destabilizing effects of party system dealignment, increasing dispropor tionality of election outcomes, and a succession of governments which many believed had ignored publ…
New Zealand
Party Interests, Public Opinion and Institutional Preferences: Electoral System Change in New Zealand
Explanations of the origins of electoral systems tend to rely heavily on rational choice assumptions: essentially the common sense inference that political parties prefer electoral arrangements that promote their interests. Accounts of electoral system change in New Zealand support either a partisan interest interpretation on the basis of survey evidence from voters, or point to other deeper causes in historical, institutional and cultural phenom…
Waiting for the Realignment? The New Zealand Party System, 1972-93
New Zealand
The New Zealand general election of 1996
New Zealand
An Inventory of New Zealand Voting Surveys, 1991-98
(1998). An Inventory of New Zealand Voting Surveys, 1991-98. Political Science: Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 111-118
Aspects of Electoral Studies, Present and Past: New Zealand Voters and ‘the System’, 1949-1996
(1998). Aspects of Electoral Studies, Present and Past: New Zealand Voters and ‘the System’, 1949-1996. Political Science: Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 90-110
Newzealand
New Zealand
Some misleading inferences about electoral institutions from an arithmetic index applied to very few cases
Rascals and PR: How Pinto‐Duschinsky stacked the decks
Jack Vowles defends the reputations of fellow political scientists researching the effects of electoral systems
New Zealand
The New Zealand Election Study
Introducing proportional representation: The New Zealand experience
Journal Article Introducing proportional representation: the New Zealand experience Get access J Vowles J Vowles University of Waikato/New Zealand Election Study Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 53, Issue 4, October 2000, Pages 680–696, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/53.4.680 Published: 01 October 2000
Political science (67 works) · Law (56 works) · Politics (55 works) · Law (52 works) · Sociology (39 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (29 works) · New Zealand Economic and Social Studies (29 works) · Political economy (25 works) · Economics (23 works) · Public Administration (22 works)